We are going to do a quick hardware upgrade for the server. We will be down for the next hour or so. Sorry for the inconvenience.

Jake

[Edit]

This down period is concluded. We couldn't finish the upgrade due to a bad CPU slot on the motherboard. We are going to defer server upgrades for a while until we decide if it is worth it to replace the motherboard.

Hello Jake,
I am an Intel partner with history of server builds for clients. I do not have enough information to give you precise advice, so the following may not be applicable to your situation.
Processor sockets can sometimes be fixed with an alcohol swab if accidentally touched by human hands or gunked up with processor grease. Those contacts and the immediate neighborhood must be "squeaky clean." Also, processor grease is not a commodity item. I use processor grease with silver powder inside (sparingly) for servers destined for extreme use. Of course, broken or bent pins cannot be fixed. If this is the case, the motherboard is toast. When a motherboard needs replacement, they don't make them any more. That means the processors, RAM, power supply and other stuff needs replacement because it is not compatible with newer boards currently in production. Now that 14 nanometer technology is the new normal, nothing older than 3 years has the correct operating voltage. If you find a "legacy" replacement board, remember this. You don't know where it has been.

It looked like one of the pins was actually bent. It's a pretty old motherboard and the server still works with the one CPU in it. For now, we will just leave it running on the one. Thanks for the information.

It looked like one of the pins was actually bent. It's a pretty old motherboard and the server still works with the one CPU in it. For now, we will just leave it running on the one. Thanks for the information.

Jake

SOMETIMES a mechanical pencil with the lead withdrawn can be used to straighten a pin on the cpu itself, go REALLY REALLY slow and be VERY gentle but if it works it's far better than buying a brand new one. If you snap the pin off the cpu is worthless but if you are considering replacing it anyway you don't have much to lose.

The database issues are not related to the maintenance. At this point, I think most of the database issues come up when we are running backups or dumps for boinc stats. In the background, I am looking for ways to make that more efficient, but it will probably be a while.